The White Houses Michael Flynn problem reaches a tipping point
** Not just Flynn please. He is being set up as the fall guy for the Kremlinization of the White House but Trump is as guilty, if not moreso. I don't think he hid anything and Pence certainly had the basic outline and is by no means innocent.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-white-houses-michael-flynn-problem-reaches-tipping-point
Multiple reports from late last week indicate that White House National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, despite repeated denials from leading members of Donald Trump’s team, spoke to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about U.S. sanctions before Inauguration Day. Flynn, who previously insisted no such conversations took place, is now saying he’s not sure whether sanctions came up during his calls with Kislyak or not.
The scandal is starting to snowball, and as the Washington Post’s David Ignatius, who first broke the news of Flynn’s calls a month ago, noted in a new column over the weekend, there’s no shortage of questions in need of answers.
Michael Flynn’s real problem isn’t the Logan Act, an obscure and probably unenforceable 1799 statute that bars private meddling in foreign policy disputes. It’s whether President Trump’s national security adviser sought to hide from his colleagues and the nation a pre-inauguration discussion with the Russian government about sanctions that the Obama administration was imposing.
“It’s far less significant if he violated the Logan Act and far more significant if he willfully misled this country,” said Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, in a telephone interview late Friday. “Why would he conceal the nature of the call unless he was conscious of wrongdoing?”
That’s a good question, and it’s one of many.
Why did Vice President Mike Pence, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, and Press Secretary Sean Spicer tell the public Flynn didn’t talk about sanctions with the Russian ambassador?
There are really only two possibilities: Either Flynn told his colleagues a lie, which they repeated because they believed him, or Flynn told them the truth, and they chose to help cover up his alleged wrongdoing.
For his part, Pence and his office have gone out of their way to say that the vice president relied entirely on Flynn’s word when he addressed the subject publicly. In other words, the VP is arguing that he was lied to, not that he did the lying.
If the White House national security advisor misled his own West Wing colleagues, how can he keep his job?
When Trump World lies to the American electorate, the president and his team don’t seem to mind. When top officials on Team Trump lie to each other, it seems likely to create an untenable dynamic. Then again, this president hates admitting mistakes, so traditional rules and common sense may not apply.
What does Donald Trump have to say about this?
So far, alarmingly little. Despite the uproar on Friday, the president spoke briefly to reporters on Friday aboard Air Force One, where he claimed to have no idea what story journalists were even referring to. “I don’t know about that, I haven’t seen it,” Trump said. “What report is that? I haven’t seen that. I’ll look into that.”
= new reply since forum marked as read
